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interconnect recommendations, please


tom518ny

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I wouldn't recommend a 4 meter span at line level in home, no matter the cable choice. EMI, regardless of shielding, can be problematic in unbalanced runs as short as 3/4 of a meter. 4 meters would make for an excellent antenna. Any chance of keeping the runs under one meter? That would reduce the potential for induced noise quite a bit.

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Yes, as you suggest, I will try to rearrange things to accommodate shorter ics.

My system -at the moment, anyway-is Modsquad passive dual volume linedrive (Steve M. modified); Janis crossover; Acoustat TNT 200 modified by Jim Strickland----and---my beloved LaScalas---and a couple of subwoofers made by a friend inside round builders tubes (sound awesome!)

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I wouldn't recommend a 4 meter span at line level in home, no matter the cable choice. EMI, regardless of shielding, can be problematic in unbalanced runs as short as 3/4 of a meter. 4 meters would make for an excellent antenna.

Folks run that length of unbalanced cable to monoblocks, for example, all of the time. You could run into EMI trouble, but you won't in most cases. The problem that I see most often and have experienced is some HF rolloff due to added cable capacitance. The rolloff will be worse on high impedance equipment (tubes) Properly shielded unbalanced cable is designed not to be an antenna. The shield is on the outside and grounded, putting any induced current straight to ground.

What can introduce RF/EMI into equipment are the speaker leads. Most amplifiers use a feedback loop that generally goes from the output and is fed back into the input, where any noise can be amplified. If that is the case, the shorter speaker leads may help.

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I wouldn't recommend a 4 meter span at line level in home, no matter the cable choice. EMI, regardless of shielding, can be problematic in unbalanced runs as short as 3/4 of a meter. 4 meters would make for an excellent antenna.

Folks run that length of unbalanced cable to monoblocks, for example, all of the time. You could run into EMI trouble, but you won't in most cases. The problem that I see most often and have experienced is some HF rolloff due to added cable capacitance. The rolloff will be worse on high impedance equipment (tubes) Properly shielded unbalanced cable is designed not to be an antenna. The shield is on the outside and grounded, putting any induced current straight to ground.

What can introduce RF/EMI into equipment are the speaker leads. Most amplifiers use a feedback loop that generally goes from the output and is fed back into the input, where any noise can be amplified. If that is the case, the shorter speaker leads may help.

Yep, me, too -- I run 8 meter interconnects from a tube preamp to a pair of tube OTL monoblocs. They are well-shielded, with the shield grounded at one end of the I/C. These are 3-conductor I/C's -- the two signal-carrying ("positive" and "negative") leads, and a separate, grounded shield. I've never had EMI from these I/Cs.

However, I've had problems with EMI being picked up by the coils in crossover networks.

If you do have EMI hum or buzz problems, be sure dimmer switches and transformer-based lights aren't to blame.

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  • 8 months later...

Whew, alot of options. I'm fairly well tempted to build my own interconnects, but I was looking for a pre-built with RCA ends, shielded with a ground wire and couldn't find one.

I do some communications work and am fond of shielded wire with access to ground that shield to a ground bus. I think that would be a good idea with the interconnects, as I was unable to keep the signal wire away from the power wire. Can such a thing be purchased, or will I end up making my own?

I did find "shielded" interconnects, but you couldn't hook up the drain...

TIA

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I don't know too much about this stuff from a technical perspective.

Could you buy some Beldon XLR wire (2 wire & sheath/ground) and make something work? That's what I did originally when I made my first XLR's.

I have another specific wire that is XLR/RCA and according to some plans, two of the pins on the XLR should (or should not) be shorted together. I've tried both and finally left those two wires with the pins not shorted. Point of that is, could you instead of using an XLR, replace it with an RCA and use the grounding sheath for your purposes?

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Side comment...

I then acquired some of each, Mogami Neglex and some Canare wires.

These have TWO PAIR as well as the grounding sheath in them. I guess having the two pair twisted, does something similar to what Cat 6 does with twisted pair??

More expensive than the Beldon. I've not put them into the system yet. Still waiting on the RCA ends to solder on.

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Mogami is my favorite wire.

I have an 7 channel Mogami snake cable made with Mogami W2932 wire and Neutrik XLR connectors connecting my processor to my amps, it's a really nice cable.

I just ordered a bunch of Mogami W2921 wire to make new speaker cables, I will cover them with black TechFlex and use GLS locking banana's.

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